"I'll take the first move, draw!"
Judai uneventfully took the first turn, swiftly scanning through the six cards in his hand.
Great, I'll use the strategy that Professor Youyu taught us to set up the formation here!
"Activate the Magic Card 'Neos Fusion' from my hand!" Judai waved his hand and inserted the Magic Card into the Duel Disc, the card appearing beside him. "From my hand, field, and Card Deck, send two Fusion Material Monsters that include 'Elemental Hero Neos' to the graveyard, ignoring the summoning conditions for Neos Fusion Monsters for a special summon!"
He drew out two cards ejected from his Card Deck and flaunted them: "I'm sending 'Elemental Hero Neos' and 'Ra's Disciple' from the Card Deck to the graveyard!
The Fusion conditions are, 'Elemental Hero Neos' plus any Effect Monster of level four or lower, Fusion Summon!
Heroes of the cosmos, strength of courage —
— Elemental Hero Brave Neos, Summon!"
Neos and a disciple clad in armor styled after Ra flew from the Card Deck, both soared off the ground and merged into the galaxy beyond. An energy storm swept through the boundless black cosmos, and a pillar of light descended at the eye of the storm, carrying the new form of the Cosmic Hero crashing down, stirring up a towering cloud of dust.
[Elemental Hero Brave Neos, Attack Power 2500]
"The attack power of Brave Neos increases by 100 points for each 'Neos' and 'Hero' monster in my graveyard. With Neos in my graveyard, its attack power rises by 100 points."
[Elemental Hero Brave Neos, Attack Power 2500 → Attack Power 2600]
"Then I'll set a card facedown and end my turn."
Judai eyed the newly set card beside him, quickly reviewing and reflecting on his first turn setup, then nodded slightly.
Great, quite a promising start. Summoned a High-Level Monster, still have 'Neos Fusion' in the graveyard to substitute destruction, and the set card is designed to strongly disrupt opponents.
The first turn should be without any flaws.
Seeing Judai choose 'Ra's Disciple' as Fusion Material, everyone more or less guessed that one of those two set cards is 'Give and Take.'
After all, Judai had previously showcased this extremely dark strategy in front of everyone — using 'Neos Fusion' to send Ra's Disciple as Fusion Material to the graveyard, then using 'Give and Take' to forcefully place the Disciple on the opponent's field, preventing their smooth summoning.
"Draw card." The Supreme King calmly drew a card.
As expected, at this moment, Judai had already raised his hand to flip open the set card.
"In the preparation stage, activate the set card! Trap Card 'Give and Take'!" Judai tightened his fist, "Special summon one monster from your graveyard to the opponent's field in defense position, then until the end of the turn, one monster on your field's level increases by the level of the selected monster!"
Judai drew a card from his graveyard.
"I special summon the 'Ra's Disciple' in my graveyard to your field in defense position, causing the level of 'Elemental Hero Brave Neos' to rise by that of the Disciple!"
Golden light darted to the field of the Supreme King, manifesting as a Disciple in golden armor, half-kneeling on the field.
[Ra's Disciple, Defense 600]
"While the Disciple is on the field, you can't special summon any monsters!" Judai smiled, "Additionally, 'Ra's Disciple' cannot be tributed except for a Tribute Summon of the Three Egyptian Gods!
In other words, your special summons are blocked!"
"Excellent!" John praised from the side, "To lock the summoning under the premise of summoning a powerful Neos, such a strong tactic! It really gave me a hard time back then!"
But the Supreme King remained expressionless.
"Everything about you is clear to me, such petty tricks are useless against me."
The Supreme King coldly stated, revealing a card from his hand.
"Activate the Equip Magic 'Axe of Fools.'" The Supreme King said in a deep voice, "Equip it to 'Ra's Disciple'. The equipped monster gains 1000 attack points, effect negated."
A heavy axe appeared in the Disciple's hand, its attack power increased while simultaneously negating its negative effect.
[Ra's Disciple, Attack Power 1100 → Attack Power 2100]
"The Disciple's effect becoming negated removes the summoning restriction." The Supreme King remarked, "Next, activate the Field Magic 'Supreme King Castle'."
The terrain morphed, a jagged black castle emerged among the dark rocks, the sky briefly illuminated by a lightning strike.
"Within the domain of Supreme King Castle, Evil Heroes usually summoned only via 'Dark Fusion' can be Fusion Summoned through other methods."
The Supreme King played another card: "Thus, I activate the Magic Card 'Fusion Birth'!" (Manga Card)
The Supreme King drew five cards from the top of the Card Deck in one go, flipping them to reveal: "Fusion Birth, send the top five cards of the Card Deck to the graveyard.
If there are Fusion Materials meeting the Fusion Monster's summoning conditions among them, the corresponding Fusion Monster can be Fusion Summoned.
Among the five confirmed cards, I found 'Elemental Hero Clayman' and 'Elemental Hero Sparkman', therefore using these two cards as materials to perform a Fusion Summon with the blessing of the Supreme King Castle!"
The two major Elemental Heroes of Earth and Light Attributes flew out, transforming into golden light and fusing into the swirling chaos above Supreme King Castle.
"Dark Fusion! Roar —
— Evil Hero Lightning Golem!"
Black lightning streaked from the horizon, crashing fiercely to the ground. A menacing iron giant descended with the lightning, the impact of its gigantic war boots kicked up towering dust clouds.
[Evil Hero Lightning Golem, Attack Power 2400]
"This is...Evil Hero..." Judai frowned.
Indeed, its appearance strongly resembled his own "Thunder Giant", except even more sinister and ferocious, like a hero fallen into darkness.
"Evil Hero Lightning Golem, activate effect!" The Supreme King declared, "Once per turn, destroy any one monster on the field.
Destroy 'Elemental Hero Brave Neos'!"
Lightning Golem splayed its fingers, black lightning shot forth like a javelin, piercing Neos' chest!
The black lightning instantly tore through Neos, seemingly ripping his body apart, as the latter let out a muffled groan of pain.
"In this case, I banish 'Neos Fusion' from the game!" Judai revealed a Magic Card, "By banishing the existing 'Neos Fusion' from the graveyard, the destruction of the Neos Fusion Monster is negated once!"
"Then, let's battle directly." The Supreme King waved his hand grandly, "Use 'Evil Hero Lightning Golem' to attack 'Elemental Hero Brave Neos'."
Judai's eyes changed slightly: "Using an Evil Hero with lower attack..."
"At this moment, the effect of Field Magic 'Supreme King Castle' activates." The Supreme King said deeply, "Send an 'Evil Hero' monster from the Card Deck to the graveyard, increase the attack power of Fiend-Type monsters on the field by the monster's level x200 this turn only.
I send a level 5 'Evil Hero Sinister Necrom' from the Card Deck to the graveyard, increasing Lightning Golem's attack power by 1000 points."
[Evil Hero Lightning Golem, Attack Power 2400 → Attack Power 3400]
Electric currents finally tore into Neos' silver-white body, shattering his armor, and eventually his entire form vanished amidst an explosive fireball.
[Judai, LP 4000 → LP 3200]
"Set a card facedown, end turn."